Tag Archives: Rubin’s Trail

Champions of Battle: AD7- Awakening #036

With little additional thought, Tosca followed her sisters to the royal garage.  The three of them always, always, always had meals together after work, without exception.  It’s been their routine for the longest of times.  It didn’t matter how the day went.  Every evening, the three of them shared a meal, did an activity, and then went to their separate apartments.  It just wouldn’t feel right for things to change, even today.

The three ladies began their practiced path through Rubin’s Castle.  The transition of architecture was stunning.  Cold, emotionless, plain lab walls were quickly replaced by the tapestries, polished marble floors, and expensive displays of the palace.  The regal elegance caught Tosca’s eye every time the three found an excuse to walk through.

Every now and then, there was a surprise.  A new token or trophy was displayed.  A new exotic rug from who knows where was placed near their path.  Regardless, everything in the palace was perfectly clean and cared for.  Things were definitely classier than they were ten years ago.  It was nice to see how Rubin’s style changed over the years.  Everything was stunning.  However, the best part of the evening still had to be the time the sisters would spend eating together.

The excitement or difficulty of a day usually affected the class of meal they had.  And with all the buzz throughout the facility and Adrianne’s excited tests, news about their new friend’s progress was exciting enough to warrant meal at the Bosstown Ge’s.  No doubt, Adrianne learned incredible things from watching the mechanized woman in action.  In any case, they probably would not hear anything about it tonight.

Work topics rarely made it into their after-work conversations; they were usually top secret.  Besides, they had far too many important things to sort out, especially this time of year.  The Trails were coming up.  They had to get ready to face any challenge thrown their way.  And while Rubin’s Trail turned out to be a wonderful and prosperous kingdom, it never hurt to have two.

The three ladies made up the active part of team Leuk Aga1n, a leading group in the royal clan Rubin’s Trail Mix.  Capable warriors, they fought alongside many other champions to defend the boundaries and honor of Rubin’s Trail.  However, Leuk Aga1n’s main focus was research and developing weapons for the clan and the kingdom.

As they reached the royal garage, Adrianne took the lead flanked closely by Chaeri on her left and Tosca on her right.  After hearing about their discussion earlier, she was surprised that Tosca was following so closely.  Of course, Tosca was the mentally tough one.  She had a much stronger character than Adrianne could muster on the best of days.

Entering the royal garage also never got old.  The lavish cleanliness and expensive style continued even here.  Not a speck of oil or fluid was on the light concrete flooring.  In the distance Rubin’s Royal Shuttle, a sleek black monster of a ship, menaced; even while resting.  Very heavily armed and elegant, it was a combination of Rubin’s older and newer tastes.

As always the kingdoms standard, the simplified sketch of a red trail through the woods, took its place on all the fighter ships.  It was also prominent on the king’s ship and the walls of the garage.

Spotting Dr. Yu, a few of the pilots rushed to their ships.  There were a few questions from her friends about the guards following them.  As a response, Adrianne told the quick story of the gankers she ran into.  In the end, she was just happy to be alive and thankful that Chaeri thought to call the sky guard to help her.  They were all happy for the guard’s foresight to follow along today.

Adrianne’s amazement continued as she spotted her ship among the many docked there.  After the morning’s excitement with the gankers, Silent Blur was covered in scorch marks and other debris.  Only half a day later, it looked as good as new.  The minty-lemon scent gave testimony of the royal garage staff’s tireless work.  Not a speck of soot or sap was on her ship.

Adrianne paused, Chaeri and Tosca followed suit.  “Ready?” she asked.  With no objections, they entered Silent Blur for another daily adventure.

#1 – Awakening #35 – Awakening #37

Champions of Battle: AD7 – Awakening #20

The wait was surprisingly brief.  Ge’s Noodles and Subs knew how to treat their high rollers.  Oyintsa was sure to thank them with a generous tip, with a little extra for the cook.  He grabbed the bags and they were out the door.

The trip out of Bosstown was a lot quicker than the trip to the restaurant.  For one, Oyintsa and Royal used a directional system to know exactly where to go.  They also had purpose enough to get there quickly.

Even though she held no equipment or bags, AD7 lagged behind.  The thoughts of her closest companion stuck deep in her mind.  The war was finished but Eighty-Seven would not consider that possible until AD7 told her directly.  So, as far as Eighty-Seven was concerned, she was deep behind enemy lines.  AD7 could only guess what Eighty-Seven would do to get out.

—–

Rubin’s Trail: Main Research Lab

Adrianne was still a little shaken by the Gankers’ attack.  They were probably bandits trying their luck; testing the strength of Rubin’s Trail’s defense.  She couldn’t begin to guess where they came from but they were very well funded.  Cloaking devices and hover-hunters were not easy to come by.

However, those thoughts were for another day.  She was back in her element now.  Sitting in her laboratory office, she listened as best she could to Chaeri’s reports on AD7’s treatment and responses.  The researchers had waited as long as they could for Dr. Yu to return.  After too long a time they had to take some actions.  She wanted to know as much as she could about this mechanical chisho before they met.

Chaeri explained that after AD7 woke up, she had shown near crisho responses to almost all stimuli.  She was thus deemed near crisho and moved from the research facility to one of the observation apartments in the lab.  It would be rude to treat a crisho in any other way, even an enemy.  A semi-prison, there was no way out of those apartments.  An electromagnetic field and other precautions prevented any contact with the outside world.

AD7 didn’t seem to need any sustenance, possibly the result of her mechanical state.  She also seemed to have an involved interest in the mechanical devices as she touched and stared at them often.  That was all they decided to do without Dr. Yu’s approval.

Dr. Yu was interested in everything AD7 did.  It was her childhood dream to meet such an iconic former Champion.  She had given pause to the greatest nations in the area.  Her Mech Fortress was strong enough to cause them to negotiate peace, combine their forces, and even ask for worldwide aid from Champions.

She started as a simple builder who wanted to defend a city.  Now she sits in their lab.  What was she now, a prisoner, a project, an example, a secret weapon?  All that would depend on her reaction to questioning.

Adrianne stood at her desk, “I would like to meet her,” an understatement.  She almost bolted out of the room with excitement before she remembered her status.

Chaeri stood and bowed trying to ignore her leader’s excitement, “I will take you to her.”

#1 – Awakening #19 – Awakening #21

Champions of Battle: AD7 – Awakening #14

“Level head… level head… level head…” Adrianne repeated the words over and over again.  It sounded silly but it was one way to keep from focusing on the many negatives of her situation.

With Silent Blur’s weapons still set for her experiment, Adrianne had no choice but to keep running through the forest at far above recommended speeds.  Each tree was in the forward view for about a second before they were shrinking in the distance behind her.  In that time she had to twist and turn around several more trees while keeping track of what was happening on her scanners.  Captain Bubbles rocked and flipped around angrily with each twist warning her of her actions.

It was a shame she had to run.  The gankers avoided entering the canopy, so far.  The only weapons they seemed to use were the hover hunters.  The cloaking hunters never had thick armor.  They relied on surprise and disguise.  Their thin light shell aided their acceleration and battery life.  It also ruined their use in a basic fight.  One good hit from anything was all it took to break one.

If the gankers in the ships above needed the hover hunters to find her, she had a possible advantage.  The ships could outrun her, but the hover hunters already proved to have trouble when Silent Blur was at full speed.

As she was planning her next move, a rather large tree seemed to leap out of nowhere directly in front of her.  “What the… NOT GOOD,” Adrianne shouted to herself.  She twisted the ship and clawed at the ground.  She even used the rockets on Silent Blur’s wings to slow the ship.  She stopped mere centimeters from the tree, leaving scorch marks on the bark.  Full speed could be a little too dangerous.

She looked at the sensors again.  They showed her what she already knew.  The two cloaked ships were circling just over the canopy above her.  The hover hunters tried to keep up with her but were running out of power.  They were flying back up to the ships, perhaps to recharge.

Now that the immediate threat was on pause for a bit, she had to choose the best path back to Rubin’s Trail.  Only two ships were on her scanners.  The other two had to be around somewhere.  These gankers have proven to be well prepared before.  How they got so prepared, she didn’t know.  However, she didn’t want to run into any traps.

By now, she was running again and had reached Rubin’s River which flowed north from Rubin’s Mountains towards Rubin’s Trail.  There was little point in trying to hide from the gankers.  They already knew where she was.  She ran north along the river and conducted another long range scan of the known cloaking frequencies.  She also pinged for motion to see where all the ships were and where they were going.

They were leaving.

It took Adrianne a little time to trust that what she saw was real, but it was.  They were all turning around and heading back towards Rubin’s Mountain.  Surly nothing she had done caused them to fly away in such a hurry.  So what was it?

The answer came with the roar of the mighty sky guard fighters.  These ships didn’t hide their presence at all.  Even if they wanted to they’d have trouble.  There were at least eight of them flying in formation.  Apparently, the gankers were running away before they had a chance to lose the fight.

Adrianne heard a call on her ship communicator.  “This is Sky Guard Es-Gee-Five-Twelve calling Silent Blur,” the voice called calmly, “Greetings Dr. Yu.  Are you in need of any further assistance?”

#1 – Awakening #13 – Awakening #15